Teachings of Christ Mind

^15.1 Before creation of the new can begin, you must come to know the way of creation as it is. It has not always been the same, and it will not be the same in the future as it is now. But there are certain principles that govern creation. These principles are like unto the patterns that were created for your time of learning and that will be applied anew to the creation of new patterns for the new time that is upon us.

^15.2 The first principle of creation is that of movement. Rigor mortis, or the stiffness of death, is nothing but a lack of movement, a lack of movement of the blood through the veins and the consequent stiffening of the muscles. The Dead Sea is a “dead” sea because of lack of movement. Thus these are excellent examples to illustrate the principle of movement as life itself, the idea of lack of movement as lack of life.

^15.3 Life and the movement of being into form is what occurred when God “spoke” and the Word came into being. Movement is energy, the life force of creation and of being, both in unity and in time. By being you are in movement. By being you are an expression of being.

^15.4 The second principle of creation, then, is that being is. It is what is and it is the expression of what is.

^15.5 Life is movement through the force of expression. The third principle of creation is thus expression.

^15.6 These are not, however, separate principles, but a single unifying principle of wholeness: Movement, being, expression. One did not occur before the other, as they are not separate. There was movement into being and an expression of being. But what was there to move before there was being? This is the way the mind looks at principles, one coming after the other and building upon each other. This is not the way of creation, which is why these principles of unity must be seen as the undivided wholeness of the principle of unity before creation of the new can begin.

^15.7 Let me use the creation story of what was once my tradition as an example. Before God “said” anything, a mighty wind swept over the wasteland and the waters. The wind, which is as great a signifier of movement as rigor mortis is of lack of movement, is the first element mentioned in this particular creation story. This first mention of movement is literally present in all creation stories because there is no story without movement. There is no story to tell without movement. Nothing is happening. So movement might be likened to something happening—to the beginning, the beginning of the story and the beginning of creation.

^15.8 Then God, a being, spoke. Here we have both the introduction of a being and the continuation of movement. Speaking denotes not only a speaker, the being, but the movement of sound. Then we are told the content of the words: It was said, “Let there be light.” More movement. Only when movement, being, and expression came together, however, was there light. Light might be seen, in this example, as the first act of creation.

^15.9 I repeat this story not as fact, or to still any doubts about these principles of creation, but to give you an example that is easily understood, an example of the way in which these principles work together. What I have left out of this story, the formless wasteland, the earth and the water that the wind first swept across and upon which the light first descended, is an interesting omission, made by many. What were the earth and water if they were not form?

^15.10 They were barren form. Form unable to create or bear fruit. Form was simply barren form before movement swept across it and animated it with the attention and awareness of spirit—with sound, light, and expression. Could these barren forms not be compared to the forms of the not yet elevated? What if the existence of form was seen to predate the animation of that form with life and spirit? Would this not be consistent with what we attempt to do here? With our continuing work of creation? Would this not even be consistent with spirit existing in every living form from the beginning of time until the end of time?

^15.11 Time is what begins and ends. Time is what began when life took on existence in form and space. It is temporal rather than eternal. Alongside it, in the state of unity, rests all that is eternal, all that is real. What is real is but another way of saying what is true. What is true is eternal life, not temporal life. There are no degrees of life. One form is not more alive than another. All that lives contains the breath or wind of spirit, which is eternal and complete.

^15.12 Expression, movement, and being are about what is eternal passing through what is temporal. Thus I return you to the lesson on “pass through” which was contained within this Course. The Course sought to teach you to develop a relationship with all that passes through you. Now is the time when the fruit of those efforts will be reaped. For what passes through you now is a relationship without end. What passes through you now is the eternal come to replace the temporal.

^15.13 To try to capture the eternal would be like trying to catch the wind. But just as the wind can power many machines endlessly when it is allowed pass-through, so too can spirit endlessly empower form when it is allowed pass-through.

^15.14 You might say that the wind comes and the wind goes. It blows in mighty gales and whispers in gentle breezes. Any sailor knows the wind is fickle. But any sailor also knows the wind never dies.

^15.15 You have all been sailors here, animated by the wind of spirit and at one time sailing—flying along with the wind at your back—and at another time sitting still or seemingly bobbing along with no apparent direction. You have attempted to build better sails to catch the wind, or motors to replace it, never realizing its constant and continual presence only needs to be allowed to pass through you to be in relationship with you, never realizing that this is, in truth, what animates you, that this is that without which you cease to be. Continual and unblocked and aware pass-through is what we now consider.

^15.16 You have been prepared for this by the realization that your thinking mind will no longer be necessary as your access to unity, or Christ-consciousness, is maintained and sustained. Let us begin with the idea of maintenance and proceed to the idea of sustenance.

^15.17 Maintenance is thought of most often as keeping what you have, and as keeping what you have in good repair. It is not often thought of as a lasting measure, which is the primary difference between the idea of maintenance and the idea of sustenance.

^15.18 Maintenance assumes that you already have something of value, and that you wish to take care of it so that it will continue to be of service to you. Maintenance implies a certain attitude, an attitude of care, vigilance, anticipation, and a knowing that without this care, vigilance, and anticipation, the value of what you seek to maintain will be lost. Thus we look at maintenance as the work, or relationship, with the desired service. In this example, maintenance is what you give in order to receive the maximum connection to unity that is possible in this time. You realize that some breaks in service will still occur, that maintenance will not make the connection perfect, but that it will keep it of service to you.

^15.19 And so we begin with the idea of maintenance of your relationship with unity. You have experienced unity now and you wish it to continue to serve you. You thus must strive to maintain the conditions that will allow it to do so. This is, as with all maintenance, a temporary measure, but one you desire to have discussed, just as we discussed parameters to your state of conscious awareness.

^15.20 To move from maintenance to sustenance is our goal, however. To sustain is to keep in existence. To recognize unity as sustenance is to recognize it as that which sustains life. Sustaining unity or Christ-consciousness is being done with the need to maintain conditions that allow it to be present. Maintenance will lead to sustenance.

^15.21 Let this idea enter you now. You have left behind the conditions of learning. Why? Because they are no longer needed. The time of learning has ended. When this time of becoming has ended, the conditions that allow your acceptance and discovery of all that is available within unity, or Christ-consciousness, will no longer be needed. This will be as big a step as was the step that left behind the conditions of learning, a step from which you at times feel as if you are still reeling.

^15.22 This step was like the final step after your ascent of the highest mountain. These dialogues might be seen as taking place there, with the guide and the team of climbers who accompanied you on your ascent. And at this highest point of the highest peak of the highest mountain, you pause and become accustomed to the thinner air, the view from above, to what you now can see. You catch your breath and let the wind of spirit fill your lungs once again.

^15.23 Here is where you work in relationship to maintain what you have learned, for you know that when you return to the level ground from which you climbed, you will be different as a result of having made your ascent. The hard work is done. What you gain here you gain from what is beyond effort and beyond learning, and from the maintenance of the state in which you reject the conditions of learning. You maintain here, in short, all of the conditions necessary to reach your goal.

^15.24 What you will have gained on your return will be the goal itself—the sustenance—for what you will have gained will never leave you but will sustain you forevermore.